By Sarah Phillips

The case of Somaliland offers insights into why some domestic power struggles – including violent ones – build the foundations for relative political order while others perpetuate cycles of economic malaise and political violence. This session will look at why large-scale violence was resolved in the internationally unrecognised ‘Republic of Somaliland’ but not in the rest of Somalia. It will argue that there were three particularly important factors at play: a domestically-funded peace process that motivated cooperation among elites; Somalilanders’ conscious desire for an enclave of peace within the surrounding turmoil; and the fact that there was a history of quality secondary education being available to at least some within Somaliland, which helped to provide critical leadership skills among select elites.